All players rated 2500 and higher by the World Chess Council are included in this list.

WCC World Chess Rankings are produced by the World Chess Council, Luis
Rentero Sancez, Linares, Spain and Ken Thompson, New Jersey and are calculated by Vladimir Dvorkovich, Moscow, Russia.

The most notable change from the pervious list is that FIDE “World Champion” Anatoly Karpov has fallen to number 15 on the list. Karpov defended his world title last year by winning an ill-conceived two-game blitz match against Anand, but both before and since the results of Karpov have been far below world championship caliber.

In short, nobody takes Karpov seriously as a world champion any more.

Kasparov has just suggested a match between himself and Anand for the world championship. They are clearly the two highest rated players in the world now, and such a match can be regarded as for the true world championship.

The planned match between Kasparov and Shirov for the world championship will apparently never take place because nobody takes Shirov seriously as a world championship contender and therefore no money is available.

In the list below, I have omitted the confidence numbers included on the official list. These numbers cannot be taken seriously, in my opinion, because for example on the official list Fischer’s rating has a confidence level of 197, even though he has played only once since 1972, and that was in 1992, whereas nearby Fedorowicz, who is one of the most active players in the world, has a rating confidence level of only 173.